Jones Milner
by Hattu
Summary: Ponder was making his way towards his objective, under the trees heavy branches he spotted a body propped up against one of the oak trees trunks, making his way towards the body, not expecting to find anyone alive, as Ponder got closer to the fallen militiaman, he could hear a low groan escape from the presumed to be a corps of a soldier...


**Prologue**

UNSC COLONY WORLD HARVEST,

EPSILON INDI SYSTEM, FEBRUARY 23, 2525.

Overnight, the mall had cleared, at dawn there were no refugees, no constables, all had moved in the night to the elevator sheds.

As captain Ponder strode eastward across the park, he saw half-drained drink cartons, unzipped luggage and ran-sacked clothes, here and there were diapers, foul-smelling rags and crumpled holo-stills.

The once beautiful mall had become a trash heap, a disorganized monument to Harvest´s abandonment.

After placing a beacon at the center of the mall to mark a landing zone for the aliens, his Staff Sergeants had wanted to re-main at the LZ to set up sniper hides and cover Ponder during the handoff.

But the Captain had refused, Healy had insisted he at least drive Ponder from the Parliament across the mall, but the Captain had just ordered the Corpsman to wrap him a new cast, give him some meds, and set him on his feet, this wasn´t pride, Ponder was just eager for one last march.

Some marines hated marching, but Ponder loved it, even his first grueling road hikes in basic training, since his demotion, he´d sometimes joked how lucky he was to have his arm blown off, if the Innie grenade had taken one of his legs (his punch line went), he probably would have learned to walk on his hands, not the best joke ever told, but even now it made him chuckle.

That made him wince and suck air trough his teeth, despite his new cast, one of his shattered ribs had shifted against his already ruptured spleen, there was nothing Healy could do for such a serious injury and there wasn´t enough time for an operation at Utgard´s hospital, not that Ponder would have agreed to it, _some missions were best handled by dying men, _the Captain knew, and giving the aliens their Oracle was one of them.

The knoll at the center of the mall was topped by a fountain and a bandstand, and surrounded by a ring of old, gray-barked oaks, as Ponder hunched past the trees, their heavy branches rose as if they were stretching up in anticipation of Epsilon Indi´s ascent.

As Ponder was making his way towards his objective, under the trees heavy branches he spotted a body propped up against one of the oak trees trunks, making his way towards the body, not expecting to find anyone alive, as Ponder got closer to the fallen militiaman, he could hear a low groan escape from the presumed to be a corps of a soldier, was in fact not a corps at all, Ponder hastily made his way towards the militiaman, while swatting aside some smaller branches with his hands.

Ponder was kneeling in front of the militiaman, trying to wake him up, wondering what had happened, the Captain spotted a scorch mark on the man's chest plate, caused by plasma to be precise, probably presumed dead after getting hit, Ponder continued to shake the soldier, to get him conscious, while watching his surroundings knowing the aliens would arrive soon, the militiaman's MA5 was still in the soldiers right hand, in a death grip it seemed, the soldiers knuckles where white, from not releasing it grip on his life line, in case of an alien encounter.

The militiaman stirred, gently and ever so slowly opening his eye, expecting to be in heaven or hell if they existed, instead he the soldier was greeted with a face in pain, a face he recognized as belonging to Captain Ponder, the militiaman murmured a "sir".

Ponder nodded his head as his response, his ribs had shifted again, making him show pain on his face, while watching the young face of the awakening soldier.

"What happened here" Ponder whispered, while watching his surroundings.

"Got hit while evacuating civilian's sir" Milner answered in a low voice, "Crawled my way to this tree and propped myself against it, feel unconscious afterward sir".

Ponder watched the young soldiers composed, blue eyes for a second, then nodded again at his response, his ribs making him feel even more pain, before answering.

"What's your name son?"

"Milner, Jones Milner sir" Milner answered, while trying to stand up, fumbling a little, as I he did so.

"We'll listen, Milner, you have one option and only one, since this place will crawl with aliens soon" Ponder told him in a grave tone, while watching him stand up.

Milner nodded for the Captain to go on, and he did.

"Start making your way towards the space elevator right now and hope the alien bastards don't spot you on the way, there is a warthog parked half a click to the west". As Ponder told the soldier this, he could hear the alien ship approach their position.

Milner took a second to decide, then turned towards the west, took a couple of steeps forwards, before stopping again and turning towards the Captain.

"What about you sir, how will you make it out?"

There was a couple of seconds of silence before Ponder answered with a low whisper, "I Won´t son, I won´t".

Milner where watching the Captains eyes with his intense blue eyes, as he said this, the silence stretched on for what felt like hours, but was in fact only mere seconds, until Milner answered, "I see sir, thank you sir, and good luck sir", spun on his heels and started to run towards the waiting warthog.

Ponder just stood there, watching the young man run towards his escape, or hopefully what would be his escape, a light breeze touched his face, that felt good Ponder thought, before he cleared the oaks canopy and could once again se the sky, Ponder saw the young soldier turn around a corner before he spotted the alien warship drop toward Utgard, Ponders lips made a small and short smile, whishing the man good luck and good speed…..


End file.
